Originally posted on Syncretic Politics February 1, 2021
One of the more insidious footnotes of the Trump presidency, which received exactly zero corporate media coverage despite appearances of all out opposition, are the economic sanctions he imposed on the civilian population of Syria in addition to those already imposed on Assad’s officials. No group has suffered greater harm during the civil war than Syria’s minority Christian population. Standing at about 10% of the population, Syrian Christians, like other minority groups, have constantly been the target of “moderate” rebel violence. While the Assad Regime has historically been hostile to Christians, the moderate rebels have made no qualms with out right genocide: burning churches, desecrating graves, raping, torturing, kidnapping and murderingChristians. Despite insurmountable evidence to the contrary, corporate media has always pretended that the rebels are the same secular and non-sectarian coalitions that challenged Assad in the first couple of years of the war, even though at the leader of Jaysh al-Islam represented the “moderate rebels” in Astana peace talks a few years ago.
Another glossed over detail of the Trump admin was his support for Libyan strongman Khalifa Haftar’s Libyan National Army in his war against the UN and U.S. recognized government in Tripoli. If we’ve learned anything from the Arab spring in Libya, it’s that regime change only changes civil wars from one fought between an existing government and “moderate rebels” to one fought among rival Islamic warlords.